Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Lauryn Fetherston
Junior Division
Process Paper length: 497 words
Nelson Mandela: Breaking the Barrier of Apartheid in South Africa
Process Paper
We discovered our topic by researching topic ideas online related to breaking barriers in
history. We wanted to do something that made a huge political impact on the common people.
Also, we wanted to choose a topic that we personally thought was significant in history. We
viewed several different topics, and we finally decided on Nelson Mandela and his fight to end
apartheid. We really liked how our topic focused on gaining equality among people. When
Mandela ended apartheid in South Africa, he ended political segregation between whites and
We conducted our research by researching Nelson Mandela’s life. We read several
biographies online to gain a broader perspective of his life. As a result of reading Nelson
him to become a political leader. We watched videos on Youtube of Mandela making speeches.
From those speeches, we gained a better understanding of the way he thought, what type of
person he was, and how he achieved his goals. We read some primary sources, specifically
perspective how determined Mandela was in achieving his goal of ending apartheid. We read lots
of quotes by Nelson Mandela. Mandela’s quotes truly reflected his character and actions. We
also watched videos on how to add features onto our website to make it more interactive.
We chose to do a website because we both have created a website before. A website was
a convenient option as we wouldn’t have to always meet up. We both could access the site and
add to it whenever we wanted to. We decided to use Weebly because it was recommended by
students who have made a website for National History Day in the past. Neither of us have ever
used Weebly in the past; we have only used Wix. First, we conducted research by viewing
various online sources. These sources included primary as well as secondary sources. Then we
paraphrased and organized the information. Then we decided on an outline for the website.
Finally, we put all the research into the website using the outline we had created. Even though
we both have had to create a website before, we ended up learning a lot more about creating
Our topic relates to this year’s theme of “Breaking Barriers in History” because Nelson
Mandela broke the segregational barrier between whites and blacks in South Africa. Mandela
ended apartheid by directing a peaceful and then later on a violent campaign against the racist
multiracial election for the president of South Africa. Mandela won the multiracial election of
1944, therefore becoming the president of South Africa. Mandela definitely broke a barrier; he